Dogs, with their superb sense of smell, keen intelligence and sharp teeth, play a prominent role in law enforcement in much of the western world.
Their ability to sense and distinguish between different odors allows them to assist in detecting hidden explosives and narcotics and tracking down missing persons, criminal suspects and escaped prisoners.
Their aggressive side and menacing teeth serve to intimidate humans and aid in crowd control or apprehending individuals.
These qualities have led to their employment by police departments as members of K9 units on routine patrol or specific searches, by military, customs and border control officials, by agricultural inspectors, by security officers at airports and by riot police or military to control crowds or suppress demonstrations.
Fire departments have also used dogs to identify and locate inflammable liquids in arson investigation.
Although most dogs have the olfactory ability to perform narcotics/explosives seeking and tracking tasks, most law enforcement authorities prefer dogs of impressive size and high agility.
The favorites are German shepherds, Belgian Malinois, and Labrador retrievers.
Law enforcement dogs are most common in Western Europe and the United States, but have also been used in Czechoslovakia, Greece, Mexico, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and as far east as Singapore.
In Rotterdam, Netherlands, there is a "Smellbank" as part of the criminal files with samples of particular humans' odors to assist dogs in their work.
